Big-game hunting tall task for Tech

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech's athletic director, Jim Weaver, does not track the number of telephone calls it takes to convince a major-conference football opponent to play a home-and-home series with the Hokies.

But he said he has trouble finding a big-name team willing to play at Lane Stadium. "A lot of people have not wanted to play us, and other people are scheduled out," he said.

Why does he think some teams don't want to visit Lane? "I have no idea," Weaver said. "It's a tough place to play."

The suits from these schools don't mention that to Weaver when they decline his invitation to start a series, he said. They usually say there is no room on their schedule ("scheduled out," in athletic director vernacular), or they'd rather play in another region of the country, or against a team from another conference.

When Weaver became Tech's athletic director in 1997, he and football coach Frank Beamer decided they wanted the Hokies to play a prominent team from one of the five other major conferences every season. Tech will do it today, when the 13th-ranked Hokies welcome No. 19 Nebraska to Lane

The Cornhuskers, who lost to Tech in Lincoln last season, consider this an opportunity for a marquee win -- their most significant under second-year coach Bo Pelini. That would have been a laughable notion 15 years ago, when Beamer, who arrived in 1987, still was building Tech's program. He told his players earlier this week that they deserved credit for elevating Tech to national prominence, and said he believes Nebraska is back at that level, too.

Not quite. The Huskers, once college football royalty, have lost nine consecutive games to ranked teams since 2006, 11 straight to top-20 teams since 2005 and 16 straight against top-20 teams on the road since 1997, when they won at No. 2 Washington. (Nebraska also was ranked in the top 20 in nine of those 16 games.) The Huskers last won a Big 12 championship in 1999 and haven't finished in the top 20 since 2003.

Yes, they went 9-4 last season. But they beat just three teams that finished with winning records. Their 2-0 record this season is built on blowout wins against overmatched Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State.

Yet Nebraska's proud history still resonates with its fans, who today will bring a scaled-down version of their sea of red to Lane. The Huskers boast five national championships and 12 conference titles -- first the Big Eight, now the Big 12 in 19 seasons from 1981-99.

The Nebraska mystique and its loyal worshippers are what make today's game feel special. Huskers faithful started popping up around Blacksburg on Thursday night. Nebraska sold out its 4,300-seat allotment, but enough fans purchase tickets from other outlets that about twice that many usually show up for road games.

Surprised? Don't be. Nebraska fans are responsible for one of the most remarkable streaks in college football. Next Saturday's home game against Louisiana-Lafayette will mark the 300th consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium (capacity: 81,067) dating to 1962. The next-closest school: Notre Dame, at 206.

These are the kind of teams Weaver and Beamer want to schedule for home-and-homes. They did it with Clemson (before the Hokies joined the ACC), Texas A&M and Louisiana State. They have series set up with Pittsburgh (2012-13), Ohio State (2014-15) and Wisconsin (2016-17).

"When I first came here, they wanted us to schedule better," Beamer said, presumably referring to fans and critics. Then he mentioned Tech's first four games this season: Alabama, Marshall, Nebraska and Miami. "When you start out and that's your first four games, you're scheduling better," he said.